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Comment Intrusive AV, stopped using it (Score 1) 142

I bought KAV 2016 3-license pack and used it on Win 7 desktops. After many odd issues, I did some digging and found it secretly injected Javascript into web pages. Ah, this is what interfered with some of the sites I hit. Its other features raised heck with a couple on-line games on the SO's computer. It prompted me to log in to the Kaspersky site all the time on one computer, complained about licensing on another for a few minutes after booting. All of the tiny issues added up, having me uninstalling the last license/instance after four months into the experience in favor of another product. I would like to find just an antivirus package that works unobtrusively, isn't cloud connected, doesn't try to nanny me, or try to be a jack-of-all trades (firewall, home security, credit monitor, privacy guard, password manager, IM monitor, toaster, ophthalmologist, druid, sock-presser -- oh, and plays Netflix and Youtube videos)

Comment Sat TV is also a Cybersecurty Threat (Score 1) 125

Classify satellite TV as a cybersecurity threat also. I have to pay for a "package" in order to get certain channels. Other channels are then denied to me. Also when satellite providers can't reach an agreement with a network (FOX, ABC etc.) then I suddenly lose channels. I'm not getting my information. Before you throw any rocks this way: c'mon, it's the same as the title. It's some jacked-up idea that looks great on paper to a committee making theoretical decisions of how the world actually works outside of a carefully crafted bubble they live. So tack on articles such a DRM and dipshit patents before you send this one up, because they are holding up progress all the same by denying access to information.

Comment The DVR isn't Dying, an Apple-ish lie (Score 1) 207

Rothschild pronounced the DVR to be dying in the same way that Apple lies about technological directions, which is solely to stilt the public's thinking to focus on the supposed superiority of their own products. When the DTV/TIVO marriage tanked, DTV built their own DVR. TIVO lost a major teat to suck from. Inventing a new hardware paradigm for TIVO- a paper-logical one; it's TIVO's way of sprinkling some Apple white lies. Yes, it's logical to get rid of a separate set-top component box, but your TV-integrated-TIVO is a proprietary solution that only a fool would buy into. Either the TV or it's parasitical TIVO component dies? You shitcan the whole unit. TIVO is going to top the cost of the TV but $300-$500, and that premium will prevent it from competing. Also the TIVO component, unless able to couple closely with cable/satellite services, will function separately, not have that integrated feel of a sat/DVR or cable/DVR, and nobody wants a feeble solution.

Comment Steam is as bunch of hot air (Score 1) 354

Steam is still DRM, just spelled differently. If EA hadn't had the install count limitation on the original shipped product, there would be little difference to consumers- aside from having physical media, than buying the thing from Steam. It's news, but not really much to get excited about, except for recognition of complaints being heard by EA.

Comment USA Mobility (Score 1) 584

There is USA Mobility. We still use them, but are dropping them when our next statement is due (we pre-pay yearly to avoid piddly monthly statements).

Here's my beef: they cut off our service with zero warning. They claim to have sent us our yearly invoice in July, again in August, and a late statement in September. We received nothing in the mail. I learned all of this in September when our services were cut off and I called their customer service. The last statement I received was a credit notice in our favor in July. Well, I put through payment to them which took about two weeks to have the check cut and mailed (corporate machine), but still could not get our service turned on because we "now" owe them a lousy $25 reconnect fee because we didn't pay within 90 days. That 90 days put our account in a status where they "no longer trusted our credit". What irks me is that we've been a customer with them since the 90's, and we're one of the "Fortune 500"- meaning we don't slack on payments or crap like that.

No amount of logic would sink in to the customer service drone, or the supervisor I asked to talk to, and calmly explained the whole mess to. He simply stonewalled me. We drop a four-figure check in their lap, and due to an absurd circumstance that wasn't our fault, they won't reactivate our service for a lousy $25?

I've had many other problems with USA Mobility in the last year, changing frequencies with no warning and dropping pager from our account, then having to call them for "reprogramming".

I'm taking our business elsewhere.
Music

Submission + - Senate bill S.256 aims to restrict internet radio

JAFSlashdotter writes: If you enjoy MP3 or OGG streams of internet radio, it's time to pay attention. This week US Senators Lamar Alexander, Joseph Biden, Dianne Feinstein, and Lindsey Graham in their collective wisdom have decided to reintroduce the "Platform Equality and Remedies for Rights Holders in Music (PERFORM) Act". This ARS Technica article explains that PERFORM would restrict our rights to make non-commercial recordings under the Audio Home Recording Act of 1992, and require satellite and internet broadcasters to use "technology to prevent music theft". That means goodbye to your favorite streaming audio formats, hello DRM. The EFF said pretty much the same when this bill last reared its ugly head in April of 2006. It's too soon to get the text of this year's version (S.256) online, but it likely to resemble last year's S.2644, which is available through Thomas. Last year's bill died in committee, but if at first you don't succeed...

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